376 NOTES. 



towards Ware, about seventeen miles and half distant from 

 London, was the actual building. 



Page 2. Mews a Ha irk. 



Mew, derived from the old French Mue, signifies a change, or 

 the period when birds and other animals moult, or cast their 

 feathers, hairs, or horns : hence Latham observe- that the " Meiv 

 " is that place, whether it be abroad or in the house, where you 

 "set down your hawk during the time she raiseth (orrepro- 

 " duces) her feathers." In the above passage, the term refers to 

 the care with which a hawk should be kept in her mewing- 

 time; and in "The Gentleman's Academic, or the Book of St. 

 " Alban's," Lond. 1595, 4to. Edit, by Gerv. Markham, there are 

 several sections on the mewing of hawks; from one of which, 

 p. 9. it may be learned, that the best time to commence, is in 

 the beginning of Lent, and, if well kept, the bird will be mewed 

 by the beginning of August. 



Page 3. Hunting the Otter. 



In pursuing this sport, which is now almost obsolete, the 

 huntsmen assembled on each side of the river where an otter 

 was supposed to harbour, beating up the hollow banks, reed- 

 beds, and sedges, with hounds kept solely for that purpose ; 

 and, if the game were at hand, its " seal," or the impression 

 produced by the round ball under the soles of the feet, were 

 soon discovered in the mud. Every hunter was armed with a 

 spear, to assist the dogs, and attack the animal when it came to 

 the surface of the water to breathe or vent ; but if the otter 

 were not found by the river-side, it was traced by the seal, the 

 fragments of the prey, and the " spraints " or soil, up the stream 

 inland to the place where it had gone to couch. The otter 

 when wounded, as it is noticed on page 50, bites violently, and 

 makes towards land ; although the male-otter never utters a cry, 

 but the pregnant females give a very shrill scream. When the 

 otter fastens upon the dogs in the water, it dives with them, 

 carries them far below the surface, and will seldom give up or 

 quit its hold but with life. The hunting of an otter will last 

 three and four hours, and the most fatal time for the pursuit is 

 in snow and hard frost : an unbaited gin set near the landing- 

 place of otters is also used to destroy them. Daniel. Otter- 

 dogs, which are mentioned a short distance below the line 

 above-quoted, are a breed between the harrier and the terrier, 

 and are hounds of great strength and activity. The following 

 extract from The Whitehall Evening Post of May, 1760, was 

 communicated for the first impression of this Edition of The 

 Complete Angler, twenty-one years since, by the late Joseph 

 Haslewood, as shewing the time when otter-hunting in Eng- 

 land began to decline. 





